hey jim. i read your 5/3/1 for athletes and your 5/3/1 books. i have a question. I have been out of high school for 7 years. i am 25 and i still have the drive to play ball. i was talking to my wife and we decided to give it another shot. i am dedicating to one year to get ready for mlb open tryouts. i am going into this with the odds stacked against me all ready because most people that go to open tryouts are fresh out of college that did not get picked for the draft and has had a lot of training and has seen the 90+ mph fast balls at the plate recently.
It has been 7 years for me. so the only thing i can do get strong again an in the best shape iv’e ever been in to go do this again. the odds maybe stacked against me but that’s fine, i will adapt an overcome. i just hope i can get a scout to see that i have good potential and the the ability to do it. really, i just hope to get put on a minor league team so i can get great coaching and experience to build my game back up.
the only thing is, i do no have the resources i had in school. like a coach. i did 5/3/1 for about a year an my gym moved farther away. i know have my own home gym. i have 2 Olympic barbells, 450 lbs in plates, bench press and squat stands for press and squat along with a curl bar. so, along with being out of school for 7 years, other than doing 5/3/1 for that little bit, lets just say the lbs have set in as well.
i am not fat but i am heavier than i was which means, there is a good chance i am not as fast as i was. I was a catcher. in high school i was my conference mvp hitter an catcher for 3 years. a catcher has to be quick to get out of the catchers position an throw to second fast. i am 6’0 220ish. but i need strength, power, and my mobility back. I know your really smart with sports related things, so could you help me?
how would you set up my program? What days would be best to train an on what days would you have me squat, press etc.? what would you do for assistance work and on what days? like i said all i have is barbell stuff and me. what about conditioning? how often and when? i know the proper way to squat, press, and dead lift so that’s not an issue. right know, until about winter of next year, i am focusing mostly on strength training and mobility an conditioning. around winter i will getting batting practice and my catching moments in tune.
what would you do for conditioning and what days? about all i have access to is steep hill to do sprints, but on what days? sorry to bug you with all this man. thanks for taking the time to read this. have a good day
This is just my opinion but since you want strength, speed and mobility you might want to try Strength, speed and size (SSS) from Beyond 5/3/1. Also recently Defranco updated the agile 8 and it’s called limber 11 (i will attach a link below). Other than that hop onto Eric Cressey’s site since most of his clients are baseball players and practice, practice, practice! Hahaha seriously the best training for sports is practicing the sport. Good luck!
Strength is important but shouldn’t be your top priority right now if you really want to go pro. You are way behind the development curve and will need quite the jump start if you want to achieve your dreams.
Look at the 5 tools of a baseball player, and ask yourself how you can improve them.
ARM-best way to get better at throwing is throwing. I recommend you check out the Jaegar long toss videos on YouTube.
FIELDING-if you want to be a catcher, that will take many hours of repetitive actions. I recommend checking out Xan Barksdale’s book for the best catching resource I have come across.
HITTING FOR AVERAGE-all about having repeatable mechanics and a solid mental approach. Develop a daily hitting routine (quality>quantity) and I highly recommend you check out Steve Springer’s Quality At Bats for help with the mental approach.
HITTING FOR POWER-if you want to get a pro look at your age, you’ll need power and lots of it. This means having explosive strength in the weight room and actually knowing how to use it in a batting practice session. I recommend checking out Isobaseball.
RUNNING SPEED-only run sprints. Absolutely no long distance, at all. Improve your rate of force development and get your 60 yard dash time under 7 seconds.
As for lifting, I recommend you include
Front Squat, deadlift, and power clean as core lifts.
Make sure upper body training doesn’t interfere with the baseball side of things. A healthy shoulder is vital for throwing and hitting.
My favorite assistance lifts: Snatch Grip Deadlift, Jump Squats, Bulgarians. Jim Wendler’s ab routine, push-ups, 1-arm DB rows, Kroc rows, Face Pulls, more Face Pulls, neutral grip chins, and all sorts of DB pressing.
[quote]RampantBadger wrote:
Wow, great posts 93mph.
x2 on checking out Cressey, even get a consultation/online coaching if really serious.[/quote]
Thanks RampantBadger. This thread was right in my wheelhouse.
Baseball is one of the few sports where big changes must be made in the weight room. It is awesome to have guys like Cressey, Blewett, Wolforth, and Boddy publishing loads of information for athletes, helping everybody to get going in the right direction.
